Lambda Chi Alpha is one fraternity at Iowa State making waves at the national level. The ISU chapter was the recipient of three awards at the International Fraternity’s 26th Leadership Seminar held June 23-29.

Lambda Chi Alpha member Jeff Votroubek, who attended the seminar in Bowling Green, Ohio, said the award was a pleasant surprise.

Votroubek said members of the house compiled the number of hours and the amounts of food and money they raised, and gathered all available documentation of their public services from January 1996 to April of this year.

He said the information was sent with an application for the awards to the fraternity’s headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind.

Though Votroubek and two other members accepted the awards on their chapter’s behalf, he said most members did not find out until they returned for classes this week.

“The guys in the house were very excited,” Votroubek said. “I don’t think anyone was expecting it.”

Two of the chapter’s three awards were first place in the Tozier Brown Public Affairs Program, named in tribute to a former president of the Lambda Chi Alpha Board of Directors.

The ISU chapter earned the Public Affairs Program Award for generating publicity received in media and community awareness.

In addition, the chapter earned the Most Outstanding Public Affairs Award for its role in the Goreville Manor project last October.

In a joint effort, Gamma Phi Beta Sorority and Lambda Chi Alpha raised $4,000 to aid in the groundbreaking of a children’s convalescent home in Ames.

“It was a neat experience,” Votroubek said. “After looking at all the numbers, it’s great what we accomplished for the Ames community.”

The national seminar also honored the ISU chapter with a third award, the Bruce Hunter McIntosh Standards for Chapter Excellence Award, which recognizes a chapter’s overall contributions and achievements.

Of the 216 Lambda Chi Alpha chapters around the United States, ISU was among 17 selected.

“It is a very big deal when, as a chapter, you’ve worked all year and you get recognition for it,” Votroubek said.